food52: The Next Phase

I'll chime in and agree on adding a widget and badge!

Reading the comments below from gabrielaskitchen, I thought I'd add a public request related to the website/marketing of Food52. A & M, you already know about this idea, but figured that this space may be consolidating ideas of this sort, so thought I'd put it here, too, for the record. Would you please, please, make a groovy sidebar "badge" that the bloggers can use to help promote the site? I'm sure many would take advantage of this. I have rigged one up on my blog (in case others want to see what I'm talking about)... but it would look so much better if it were official and came from you guys. Actually, your logo--PLUS maybe a little award badge or seal or something that contest winners or editors pick designees have access to. (We all like to do a little cross-promotion, tooting of horns, right?) My graphic skills are OK but not great, and it'd be best if everyone used the same thing... I've seen the logo on at least one other blog (can't remember which), used on a "press" type page when the author got either a win or an editor's pick.

P.S.2. thanks Amanda and Merrill for food52! I've tried and tried to get into other recipe websites, but just didn't vibe with them. food52 was the answer!

The idea I like best for food52two: is Spice/Flavor based recipes. Or flavor combo recipes, i.e. pork/apple, basil/oregano, poultry/nut, or even more broad like savor/sweet etc.

Just a few general suggestions for the website: 1) Having a way to embed hyperlinks would be amazing! 2) More importantly, since food52 has become a hub for the online home cook community, a bulletin board feature would be a great way for food52ers / foodbloggers to connect in real life. Haha, in fact, it seems as if this post turned itself into a bulletin board. (I totally understand if this is too much to ask, I realize that the backend of these sites is already a lot to maintain!) P.S. Anyone in NYC interested in co-hosting nat'l foodblogger bake sale on April 17th, proceeds go to Share OUr Strenght's efforts to end childhood hunger in USA, see Gaby's blog (not me) for more details, contact me at gabrielaskitchen{at}gmail{dot}com if you want to organize nyc bloggers with me, I'd love to collaborate on this with you! Don't have your own blog? I think the food52 community should represent! http://whatsgabycooking.com/bake-sale/

Late in suggestions here, but thought I'd add mine to the pot. I love the idea of healthy eating as defined by individual chefs - we all have our personal health needs that become quite clear in the alterations we make to traditional recipes.

But since that's already been discussed, here's another idea. How about a cookbook that focuses on using what is in your cupboard and fridge - leftovers, that wilting spinach, the half used box of barley. Every home cook knows the pang of guilt they feel when they throw away unused, unappreciated ingredients. Especially in a time of budgeting and sustainability, it would be appropriate to help people manipulate what the food they have and transform it into memorable meals. A book like this would take every cook to the next level.

I'm not quite sure how the contests would be structured, but I'll leave that one to the experts! Thanks for letting us weigh in on this!

Following up on my note below, supporting the suggestion of adding tips/tricks/variations, etc. in sidebars . . . . . . doing that would also promote more interest in and discussion about the recipes, as people try them, share their variations/substitutions, etc. In all likelihood, the site would become even busier, as we all contribute our collective experience with the recipes, for the benefit of anyone else thinking about trying them. My inner engineer is always (to the point of an obsession) looking for ways to improve just about every recipe I try. I suspect that I'm not the only one. I'd love to see more discussion about the recipes themselves -- especially variations, what worked/didn't work -- by people who are actually trying them. (I posted a more detailed comment to this effect on the Feb. 13 post about the new features on the recipe page, if you're interested.) ;o)

I wish I weren't swamped at work so I could (a) read all of these comments and (b) dedicate a proper amount of thought to this conversation! I have another idea, albeit half-baked, that I'd like to throw into the mix. (That is if it hasn't been mentioned already.)

Would anyone be interested in organizing/attending some sort of conference-style event? (Ahem, corporately sponsored. Oxo? Harper? Anyone?) There are just so many cooks I admire here that I'd love to meet and learn a thing or two from!

I am noticing how often the words "simple" and "spectacular" are used in cookbook titles. How about contests that are, for example, a simple chocolate cake and then the second contest would be for a spectalular (complicated) chocolate cake, or whatever you choose for a theme each week. Mark Bittman and Jean-George did this in Simple to Spectacular in which they did a very basic recipe and then complicated versions. We could use different words to implement the same concept.

Brilliant! I agree with Peter Steinberg.
For the second set of contests there'd be no urgency for results which might provide a more relaxed testing schedule behind the scenes.

I guess I don't like change much either, but I have to say that I could happily spend another year being inspired by the weekly themes you two come up with and keeping things very much as they are. Even when I don't feel proficient enough about something to enter a contest (ex. I've never prepared oysters at home), I use the weekly themes as motivation to expand my cooking horizons. I don't think a week has gone by since I became involved in Food52 last summer that I haven't at least attempted a recipe based on one or both themes.Even when I don't end up posting the result, I really have so much fun creating recipes with Food52 in mind, and I know I am not the only one...

I like the idea of seasonal cooking with what's sustainable and local (kind of like the theme of Amanda's book the Cook and the Gardener) I know you'd be top heavy on "summer" but the challenge is the other seasons!
Street food is a bit limiting in my book.
Or stay the way it is, there's so much variety!

Gotta say I like it as is - I'm so looking forward to the Food 52 cookbook. I really loved the Piglet and hope to see that repeated.

I think that street food is a fun idea but I don't think that it is our book...street food is what it is. It is not the food that we prepare for ourselves each day. It is a snapshot of a place, time , an ethnicitity...it's the fast food that is prepared in a van, a roadside BBQ, a wok on the street. We enjoy it because it is peek into the world of Korean BBQ, shave ice, tacos and many ethnic groups that we do not belong to.

So, I've been out of commission for about a week and a half, and I've missed the dialogue with my Food52 friends. Yes, I do think of this as "my" community, and that's really the power behind what you've created here: a diverse, international community that rallies around a common love of food. I haven't read all the comments below--there are now too many of them--but I did scan and came up with some repeating elements. I definitely agree that keeping this accessible to the international community is important, which is why I would not be in favor of, say, a 50-states tour. I do worry that defining too narrow a theme for a book could result in participants getting bored. One thing I like about this year's project is that I know that if I'm not as excited by the contest themes one week, there will be something totally different the next week. It's not often that there's a week when neither contest theme appeals to me--if I fail to enter, it's generally a time constraint issue. If the whole year were spent on a particular type of food or region, though, I don't know. The idea I saw here that seemed immediately appealing to me was the "street food" concept, because it's international by nature and can encompass healthy or not, savory or sweet; speed and portability are perks to street food, too. But I wonder if it's already too "done"? Another idea that I liked was sharing "heritage" recipes, family recipes; or doing the "traditional/update" contrast. The "traditional" version could be one of the week's contests, and the "updated" would be the second contest. You wouldn't have to submit to both, if one week you wanted to just do traditional, the next week there was a dish you wanted to reinvent. Finally, I do want to echo the "if it isn't broken, don't fix it" thread that runs through some of the comments: so much seems to work well here. Obviously, you will not forget why you created Food52, and I'm sure you'll stay true to its roots as you also evolve. I think the fact that the recipes come from home cooks (some bloggers, some not) is great--but it's also great because we trust you to curate them and your own stamps of approval (and often extra tips on preparation) are valuable. Ultimately, this is about community... but you, Amanda & Merrill, have to also balance community with marketing/revenue concerns. The cookbooks presumably need to be successful products in the marketplace, meaning that we want the book's ultimate audience to be much larger than the community itself. I know you will figure this out with a blend of wisdom, savvy, faithfulness to the values and ideas that started Food52, and a sense of culinary adventure. Good luck, and THANK YOU again so much for all you have created to date.

A theme I keep hoping to see here is "street food". It can be almost anything, and definitely international. Last week Los Angeles held a Street Food Fest which attracted hundreds of people who waited in a two hour line for general admission. Maybe for the next volume?

I haven't read through every comment, so forgive me if I'm repeating someone here. What if the next volume were like Apartment Therapy Presents: Real Homes, Real People, Hundreds of Design Solutions? The new book could focus on Food52's users. The sections could be divided according to # of people in household, or size of kitchens or homes? I like looking at pictures of ginormous dream kitchens, but I also love seeing what can be done with limited space (Jill Santopietro's teensy weensy NY kitchen comes to mind.) It would be great to find a book solution that conveyed the spirit and camaraderie of the Food52 community.

What an extraordinary thread of ideas and feedback -- this is obviously not an easy decision, and we're so glad to have you involved. Thanks, and looking forward to your continued input!

I just read all these comments and I am so moved! Amanda and Merrill, when you decided to do this, did you have any idea that you would be tapping into so many people's deepest desires (to cook well, eat well, learn from each other), or that you would be building such a committed, interesting, loving online community? These are the best kinds of connections, and I feel like we all get to know each other a little bit because of what we like to cook and eat, how we juggle our family and work, how we express our passion for food, and by extension, those we feed. I hope you can continue to make this a successful venture. It's a community I'm proud to be a part of. Thank you. Thank you both. Thank you all.

after 90 comments, someone may have already said this, but we have 50 states here, and I'm wondering if you can't pick an ingredient (still operating seasonally) from each state--something indigenous to each state--and use that as your theme. in some cases, it could be a dish instead of an ingredient. the final two weeks could either revisit a state(s) that offers A LOT of options, or takes a few beloved national dishes to tackle. food52-ers could weigh in, based on where they live, to help decide which item should represent which state. might help sort out the regionalism in a more streamlined way.

Oh, Food52. I love you just the way you are. But change always scares me.